60'-70's Vintage Oval Track Modifieds

One method was to fill the black iron pipe with sand and use a tree behind the shop as a bending radius. If there was a good crotch in the tree it could be a one man job. A tight radius might require some heat to soften the pipe.

A wheel with and without a tire made a great radius for the front bumpers that you see on the old modifieds.

Black iron pipe was popular because it was easy to weld with an AC stick machine. Actually might still be a good choice for strength and durability.

There are probably 101 other methods that were used.....

 

83 is pretty wicked any info?

 

Give yourself a break. You've earned it. I read his letter, and don't know that I could stand to work with that attitude. In fact, I know I couldn't.

All that work, and he missed the point it seems.

 

Thanks for the info, that was sort of what I expected, but wanted to know from someone that was there

 

Now that you said that, I remember a car around here that had the 90 degree elbows, but I think his was threaded.

That one always scared me just a little, the guy was low bucks and ran that same car for years.

The 1st car we ran, I cut a notch out of the pipe, bent it tight and welded it shut, Probably not much better then the threaded elbow, but in my mind it was. Fortunately neither car ever had the cages tested, so all was right, sort of. Gene

 

In picture 8462, the 16 of Joe Csolak from Trenton, N.J. That car was powered by a hi po 289. Joe's cars were good looking and good running. Cars were painted blue with white interiors. Joe ran sportsman and always Ford Powered. His last car was a Pinto, 330 fe truck block, wouldn't tell me what pistons he used, but I heard from another they were Chyrsler 340 12.5

 

Picture 8469 the 2a of Walt Garret from Philipsburg, N.J. Could be Carl Van Horn driving

 

it's rumored that the blue pinto had an automatic trans in it at one point.

 

i had to smile after reading this post......when i first started in the mid 60`s we did the tree deal for a bit......and then we found all the town stop signs had neat square tubes for poles.......we started borrowing all the poles til the town got wise.......then we picked on other towns......made a few of early cutdowns using them........made a neat looking cage.....

 

Quite a few used Chevy PowerGlide transmissions for awhile .. until NASCAR outlawed them.

 

Yep, the crotch of the tree. There was one tree in my yard that cought hell!!!! I wonder if it survived? That was back in '67.

I used schedule 40 black iron. It was lighter than 80. I didn't use the sand unless I was bending thin wall conduit.

Thought I was king of the hill in about '73 when I scored a hydraulic BlackHawk with the 3 different size radius mandrels and back up plates. Was probably hot off a job site . Still use it today. I've since added an air-over hydraulic pump.

 

There were many tense moments .

My buddies told me I should've received a patient person award .

But now that's all in the rear view mirror .

I fulfilled and/or exceeded every obligation I made for this car.

 

This looks like a "new" car showing up at Claremont NH. The 180 headers, clean Pinto body , no number even. And you say an AT also.
Punky Caron and Albro coupes in the background were the standard look.
Anyone know who were the guys were running this car? Looks around 1975-ish.

 

The Pinto was a new car built and driven by Dave Cowdrey . Very nice car , was numbered 36 the following week .